Speculative stock of the day: Knosys (KNO) +118.18% after announcing a $6m contract with Singtel for the deployment of the knowledge management platform Knowledge IQ.

Biggest risers – AWE, FXJ, ORE, ILU, AMA, KDR and S32.

Biggest fallers – WGX, NST, GOR, SAR, RRL and RSG.

TODAY

Commonwealth Bank (CBA) +0.69% The bank has named an internal candidate Matt Comyn to replace Ian Narev in April. After a world-wide search, he was at CBA all the time.

AWE +16.47%Yet another bid announced this morning. Now three parties vying for the company. Mitsui has entered the race with a 95c cash bid. The bid is unsolicited and non-binding together with some conditions.

Synlait (SM1) -2.15% Forecast milk price remains steady at $6.50 kgMS for the season. Next update in May but the recent strength has helped after a period of weakness since October.

Iluka (ILU) +4.85% zircon/rutile/synthetic rutile production volumes are up 22% at 825k tonnes. Market conditions have remained robust in mineral sands and the outlook is positive. Net debt reduced to $183m on stronger cash flow and a strengthening AUD which has revalued US D debt.

ByronEnergy (BYE) +10.34% Third successful well at SM71 with total depth reached of 7717 ft in 22 days.

CleanTeq (CLQ) -1.02% the company has signed a additional breakthrough contract with Multotec in Africa. The deal to design, supply and commission a metals processing plant will use CLQ technology. The project has a value of around $2m.

Zip (Z1P) +22.11% Quarterly update with transaction volume up $45m to $140m a 47% increase and exceeding guidance. Record quarterly revenue of $9.3m up 35%. Operating costs stabilised. Merchants grew by 31% to over 1800 new merchants including Kogan and Anaconda.

ECONOMIC NEWS

Citi has lifted its ASX 200 target from 6,400 to 6,600 by December 2018 driven by higher resources earnings estimates. Citi is now the most optimistic of the big brokers.

Sydney’s auction clearance rate was a healthy-sounding 82.4% this weekend but it was from just 22 auctions, according to Domain. At the same time last year, Sydney auctions cleared 65.3% across 55 listings.

Melbourne maintained a steady 66.7% across 19 auctions, a similar rate to last year when volumes were twice as high.

ASIAN NEWS

Japanese exchange Coincheck says it will spend up to 46.3 billion yen ($US426m) to pay back customers after it was hacked and lost cryptocurrency worth some $530m.

Let’s talk bubbles. The China H-share gauge rallies now for the 715th day, one of the longest in its 23-year history.

Wynn Macau fell in Asia today following allegations that Steve Wynn, founder and chief executive of its US parent Wynn Resorts had sexually harassed women who worked at its casinos.

EUROPE AND US MORNING HEADLINES

US Flu season is getting bad and some estimate that up to 50k people will die as a result of the flu. The season is shaping up to be similar to the epidemic of late 2014 and early 2015, which entailed 710,000 hospitalizations and 56,000 deaths, according to the CDC. Explains why CSL is rallying.

Tuesday is State of the Union address.

Leaders from the world’s biggest economies are planning to discuss a global regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies at the next G20 summit in March.

And finally………………

Just booked a table for Valentine’s Day for me and the wife.
Bound to end in tears though; she’s crap at snooker.

They say that sex is the best form of exercise. Correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t think 1 minute and 15 seconds every 6 months is going to shift this beer belly.

If you get an email telling you that you can catch swine ‘flu from tins of ham then delete it. It’s spam.